Good Lifestyle

Between lost work and remote work,closed schoolsAnd empty social calendars, many of us felt that our worlds become smaller as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. But a particular group, the deaf and difficult communities to hear, has been doubly disconnected from the world because of a surprising thing: face masks.

Although masks are a crucial tool to helpreduce the transmission of coronavirus, theSAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE reports that the widespread use of facial masks has lefta lot in the deaf community Feeling disoriented and isolated: With covered faces, they are much less able to navigate daily interactions with the help of liprofreading and subtle signals of facial expressions.

Justin LeBlancAssociate Professor of Deaf Fashion Studies, Shared With theColumbia Chronicle that he has recently beenreluctant to venture in public because of themasks. "Have face signals, body language [and] Lipreading is important," said Leblanc. "Use something as simple as a mask [can] eliminate all this opportunity to communicate." In short, without seeing someone's face, you lose a huge amount of information: accent, emotion, tone and clarity all become obscured.

Fortunately, people offer creative solutions to the problem-leblanc included. This summer, it will start working on the accessible mask project, which aims to conceive of asafe and efficient mask This allows better communication for deaf and hearing improach. Similarly, CNN has recently reported thatSheri Mello, MD, an audiologist based in Raleigh, North Carolina, recently startedDistribute homemade masks With a clear mouth covering his hearing patients. She had an extremely positive answer from families who can now communicate better at home.

However, the key to success is not fair than those of the deaf community to bring these masks increased - for the biggest impact, the large community should also wear them too. Making this simple change could be a deep step towards inclusiveness and accessibility - and in our narrowing world, there are few goals worthy. And to make sure you wear the mask of your face in the right way, discover how theWhich has just changed its coronavirus mask guidelines.